Battlefield
by georgiewho
Summary: It's 2012. The Lacandon Jungle, Mexico. Earth. Bushido and his team of special forces are on a classified mission to destroy a group of Xenomorphs that have invaded the jungle after an unidentified object crashed only twelve hours beforehand. Their mission was supposed to be simple - find the motherfuckers and kill them before they could reach civilization.
1. Chapter 1

Death in Vegas - Soul Auctioneer.

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The Lacandon Jungle, Mexico.

* * *

Only if you knew what you were listening for could you hear the light footfalls of the soldiers slipping through the trees. Sweaty hands gripped at their Bushmaster XM-15's, their boots silent as they stepped over vines and tree roots that littered the ground under their feet. They were ducked low, eyes pressed to the horizon, gazes only moving away to catch their commanders hand signals, following his directions and picking up the pace.

The jungle was eerily silent around them, the only sounds were their own hearts beating in their chests and the quick, concentrated puffs of breath as they moved in on their target.

"Hold your positions," the commander ordered quietly, ducking down into a crouch and listening, his head ducked low. Licking his lips he reached for the dulled silver cross hanging at his neck, bringing it up and kissing it for luck, his dogtags rattling as it dropped back down. He caught his men's positions and motioned for them to look, pointing ahead, and they all stilled, looking ahead towards the dirt road they knew lay beyond the trees.

A crunch of tires on dirt reached their ears and they all slowly moved forwards, gaining on the target-or targets, they were one in the same.

Destroy the threat.

It was an old yellow bus that came around the corner, moving over the bumpy terrain towards its destination. Probably, most likely, coming from Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital, and heading to one of the outlying cities beyond the jungle. The old bus was the only sound before suddenly there was a crash and the bus was spinning off the road, upturning, a huge creature clinging to the side of it, smashing its huge fist through the windows, trying to grab the people inside.

By this point, none of the soldiers tried to hide the sound of their footsteps, twigs and branches snapping under their boots as they rushed to the civilians' aid. The Xenomorph's hand dipped back inside again, lifting out a screaming teenager just as the group of fully armed men burst from the trees, weapons firing. The teenager was dropped carelessly to the road as the creature turned on the shooters, screaming in pain-the sound of it sending chills down everyones' spines.

"Get back," The commander yelled at the teenager on the ground, and pressed his lips together when the kid didn't move. He lifted his gun and aimed at the alien, trying to move it away from both the boy and the bus of civilians. When he was in reach of the body, he grabbed him up by the back of the shirt and yanked the heavy, unconscious kid to the side, looking up as another came out to take the boy from him and he shoved the kid at him before he was back on his feet and shooting at the monster dripping with its own green, acidic blood.

Finally the beast lay on the ground, motionless in a burning pool of its own blood. Giving it one last kick, the commander pulled the strap of his gun over his head and threw it to the man closest to him. "I want you all to survey the area, I don't want another one of them getting through. Kay, Shad, gimmie a hand will you?" he grunted as he headed over to the bus, looking down at the three dead bodies; an old lady, a middle aged white male and what seemed to be the bus driver were laying in a pool of blood and he nodded to another of his team. "Saad, get these bodies out of sight. Take some men with you and bury them," he instructed.

"Yes, Boss," Saad nodded seriously before him and two other guys started to drag the bodies away from the bus site, knowing the man wouldn't want any of the survivors to see the mess the single Xenomorph had managed to make-and that was just one, by itself-the boss still had to tell them that there were more, if he told them at all.

It was then that the commander led Shad and Kay to the bus, using the butt of Kay's gun to knock out all the shattered glass from the door, grabbing onto it and pulling himself up, helping the other two up and climbing down into the upturned bus, boots crunching on the broken glass below. He crouched down and his eyes swept over the scared people around him. "Anyone hurt?" he asked them seriously, lifting up a broken seat and moving it to the side before he was heading towards the back where they were all crowded, some tucked safely under seats and he couldn't help but smile, pleased to see that some of them thought with their heads.

It wouldn't have done much if the beast had got inside, though.

At first he didn't think anyone was going to answer, but it wasn't long before a woman sitting with two little girls-twins perhaps-nodded. "We're okay," she replied in English, though, he could tell it was a second language, if the thick accent was anything to go by. "I-It got the others," she said a little more quietly, pulling her daughters close, protectively.

"What was that fuckin' thing?!" a teenager-the same teenager that had pulled the other boy inside earlier-spoke up, holding the other male's head in his lap, the boy starting to wake up already-must have fainted.

The commander didn't speak at first, just looked at them all seriously. "We don't have time for that, there are sure to be more. I need you all to gather anything you might need, don't take anything that you can't carry through a jungle on a hot day."

"Who are you, anyway?" One of the older men spoke in Spanish.

"Bushido, and we're the only ones for miles, so... if you want to live, I'd get the fuck up and do as I say, without making too much noise," he told them gruffly and started motioning people forwards, taking their names before helping them up through the door and out of the bus.

The mother, Susan, with the two girls-twins-Alison and Audrey. Emmy and her son Joshua-the first man that had died had been her husband, Clive. Then there were the twins, Bill and Tom-apparently Bill was a model and 'should not be here at all.' Bushido had just chuckled and shoved him up and out through the doors, Tom going after. Then there were the brothers, Leroy and Markus-who had what looked like a broken wrist. He sent him to his medic-Eko-and then helped up a woman named Maria, who was also a nurse, which would most likely come in handy if things got too rough and Eko needed the extra hands.

It wasn't until a big black man named Dave told them that there was someone missing that Bushido cussed under his breath and went outside too, taking two of his men; Ari and Kay to look for the missing man before they ran out of time and had to leave. It didn't take them long to find the body, and Bushido just left him there-it would teach him for running and leaving innocent people to die and he spat down on the ground before heading back.

When he got back to the bus, his men had everyone round up and in one place, everyone looking around nervously at the trees surrounding them, as if they knew it would be impossible to spot them coming. And it would be, the fuckers were so fast and they were perfect predators. "Alright," he said as he walked closer, everyone turning to look at him. "We travel light, no high heels, no bags, just what you're wearing and any food and water that you can carry," he said and pointed to the pile of food off to the side-the men having gone through everyone's luggage to find supplies.

"Where will we go?" Emmy asked, her voice desperate, the woman clinging to her child as if one of the monsters would come and snap him right up-it probably would, too.

"For now? To the river, we have to mask our scents and get you all to safet-" Bushido started but he was interrupted by Saad whispering in his ear.

"What about our mission, Boss?"

"Our mission is to protect Earth and its people and that's what we'll do," Bushido ordered, and the man nodded, starting to hand out the rations. "Keep together and don't wander off," he said to everyone before he was leading them into the trees, his gun held high and his men protecting the civilians, everyone silent-for now.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a few hours of walking-and running when the civilians could handle it-and they hadn't had anyone die on him yet, and satisfyingly enough; no one was complaining of the pace, everyone too afraid to even whisper between themselves. Bushido felt a little bad at pushing them, but it was a matter of survival and they had to find a place to camp before night fell, that was when the Xenomorphs came the most. And he wouldn't be surprised if they were all watching them right now, waiting for the right moment to strike.

His dark eyes swept over the trees ahead and kept walking, only to get distracted by the sound of a hand slapping against skin and turned to look over his shoulder, pausing in his steps at the top of the "path" he'd created, able to look down at everyone.

"Does anyone have any bug spray? I'm getting eaten alive by these damned mosquitos."

Of course it would be him, the boy that had made a fuss earlier, the pretty twin-Bill if he remembered correctly. He'd been waiting for a complaint from one or the other-the twins were the most out of place out of everyone that was left, obvious city boys, and it didn't surprise him at all that it was the model. Those models were supposed to be pretty high maintenance and he damn looked it. Even his men were looking over in the kid's direction more than he would have liked; they hadn't seen anyone other than each other for more than two months, in the time they'd spent out here in the jungle, and it was obvious why they were looking at him.

The kid was beautiful.

He had this long, black hair that even after hours in a hot, humid jungle, looked like he had just walked out of one of those expensive fashion magazines his ex-wife used to read. He had them long legs as well, a little on the skinny side, but it was obvious he wasn't in any way weak. He was pretty sure he was wearing make up too, Bushido could see it smudging around his eyes from the heat and sweat and was that fucking lip gloss?

His brother was no better really, except for, perhaps the way he dressed, which was rather amusing to him-he had to walk while holding those parachute of an excuse for pants up. The hat actually protected him from the mosquitoes that were bothering Bill so much, in fact Tom didn't seem to be having as much trouble with them in general.

Bushido had gotten his dick wet by both males and females, though he was more inclined to woman, something about the way they felt in his hands. He had a feeling that the kid would feel just as good, though. And he mentally cursed before continuing on.

"I don't blame them," Kay mumbled to Bushido and the older man grunted in amusement, shifting his gun to his other hand.

"Go take them their water rations," was all he said in reply, though.

"Boss," Kay nodded and dropped back, pulling out a canteen and screwing off the lid, turning to the people and letting them all take a mouthful as they passed him.

They walked for a little more and it wasn't long before he noticed movement beside him and he looked over to see Bill walking beside him. When had that happened? Looking over his shoulder, he saw the blond, dreaded twin walking on his own, Kay walking behind him and looking rather amused about something.

And much to Bushido's mortification, he even waved at him. Fuck him.

"Whaddya want?" Bushido grunted, pretending to check his gun, expecting to get complaints.

"Those are really nice boots," Bill commented, sounding much too chirpy for Bushido's liking, especially in a situation like this. "Where do I get a pair?"

"You don't." Glancing at him, Bushido shrugged a heavy shoulder and paused again, the kid falling silent as he looked around.

"Get back," he told him lowly, grabbing the kid by the back of his neck and shoving him towards the group of civilians when he didn't move fast enough. Him and his men started to crowd the people together and got them all to duck down as low as possible.

"What is it?"

"Quiet!" Bushido growled at the dreaded teen, the kid's voice too loud.

"Boss, we've got bugs," Saad grunted and motioned to him, signalling where he spotted the enemy. "Four."

"Shit," Bushido muttered and moved away from the group, crouching down and bringing his gun up, looking through the scope he'd attached earlier. He caught sight of them-moving through the trees at a speed they would never be able to match. As soon as he got the first shot off, his men started to open fire on the creatures, the bullets thudding into trees and Xenomorph flesh.

The children started to cry and he could hear the adults trying to quieten them, his lips pressing together as he continued to fire upon the oncoming targets, sweat gathering on his brow. Swearing under his breath as they continued to hit more trees than they did Xenomorphs, Bushido shoved his gun at Kay, going over to where Fler was unpacking the M2 flamethrower and without a word, he grabbed it up and threw the bottles over his shoulders. He leaped over a root with the heavy weapon and headed towards the approaching Xenomorphs, dropping down onto his knee and holding his position, not using the flamer yet.

Everyone had been so focused on the Xenomorphs that were rushing down the hill, through the trees, headed towards them, that they hadn't noticed the one that slipped quietly through the trees-mimicking the quiet way the soldiers had moved.

It all happened so fast.

One moment he'd been about to use the flamethrower on the Xenomorph that was closing in on him, and the next there were screams of terror and he was looking over his shoulder to see what was going on. Taking his eyes off the creatures-only for a second-he turned to see one of the aliens tearing the head off of the mother of the little boy, blood spraying over the group of civilians-everyone starting to scream and move away.

It was only a few seconds. But that's all it took, the alien he'd been about to incinerate took the few seconds to its advantage and leaped at Bushido, slamming him against a tree and knocking the flamethrower from his hands, the fuel canisters jamming painfully into his back.

"Boss!" Kay yelled out as he saw the creature's tail coming up.

Bushido half rolled to the side and the Xenomorph's barbed tail sliced through the air before burying itself into the trunk of the tree, just barely missing him.

"Get to the civilians!" Bushido yelled back to him, grunting as he kicked out at the huge creature-one wrong move and he'd be dead.

"On it, Boss!" Saad's voice came from the right and then the sound of gunfire and the spine chilling screams of one of the creatures.

The gunfire died down soon after, the rest of the men having shot down the rest of the aliens. There was only the one left now, but it couldn't be shot without killing the commander as well, it was especially risky with the flamethrower on his back.

"Boss, get outta there if you can, I'll shoot the motherfucker," one of the men, Eko, told him, his gun aimed and ready to shoot as soon as he was out of the way.

A little too preoccupied to reply, Bushido grunted and as the creature opened its mouth, a second appendage with teeth snapping out at his face, grazing his cheek and tearing the skin before Bushido reached up and grabbed at it, struggling to get a good grip on the slippery, lashing appendage. Finally he got a good hold and yanked with all his strength, tearing the appendage out, its blood eating at the inside of the Xenomorph's mouth, the flesh inside unprotected.

Pulling his now bleeding leg up, Bushido kicked hard at the creature and just as he did his men brought their guns up and started to fill it with lead, the older man dropping and rolling away from the spray of acid, towards the flamethrower handle.

Snatching it up into his hands, he turned on the creature and scrambled to his feet, jamming the nozzle into its bleeding mouth and pressing the trigger, it's head exploding it a burst of flame. The only problem with that was with its exploding head came flying acid and Bushido threw himself down to the ground and grunted as he was splattered with a bit of the blood, the acid bleeding through his armor and he yanked it off, throwing it to the ground.

Next went his shirt, the acid having bled through rather quickly. "Fuck," he growled, the acid having burnt into his chest a little, the wound bleeding after a moment. It wasn't bad, though, a little painful, but nothing he couldn't handle. "Let's get them out of here," he growled, looking pissed off as he walked past the civilians, ignoring them completely as he picked his gun back up and started walking-quicker than they all had been before. "It's getting dark, that's why they're here. If we don't find somewhere to hide, and soon, we'll be fucked," he told his men, not hiding his orders now, it was too serious and they were running out of time.

"Where will we go?"

It was Maria that had asked, looking fearful as she held the young boy-now an orphan- to her chest. "Is there anywhere safe?"

"They probably don't even know where they're going. We'll probably all die out here. They'll run out of ammo eventually."

Bushido turned to look at that, his jaw tightening. It was Antonio, one of the model kid's film crew-apparently they'd been going to one of the smaller villages on the outside of the jungle. Already, Bushido didn't like the man.

"Man, you got a big mouth, shut it," Dave growled-another one of the crew, a big black man that actually nearly put him, Bushido, to shame. "These kids are probably scared enough without you running your damn mouth. We got a better chance with them than we do on our own."

The commander watched the tirade with dark amusement before he folded his arms over his bare chest, frowning a little. He was about to say something when the kid, Bill, surprised him by speaking up-his voice sounding a little strained.

"Let's just get out of here."

"Agreed," Bushido said shortly, watching the teen approach before he was turning and leading them through the jungle, this time on a downhill trek, the pace a lot faster than it had been before.

The trees and foliage were starting to get thicker, meaning that they were close to the river. It was then an idea struck him and he took a machete from Saad and they started to physically cut their way through, knowing that the thick trees would give them some protection from the Xenomorphs, or at least some time.

"To the river," he instructed his men through the radio he'd grabbed from his armor and the flamethrower was hanging at his side for now.

They moved down to the river's edge and Bushido paused, turning to look at the tired and probably overheated civilians-deciding to stop. "We'll stop and drink, make a line," he told them after a moment, putting the flamethrower down at his feet and pulling out a dulled, metal cup, leaning down and filling it with cold water from the river. It wasn't spring water or anything but it looked pretty clean considering.

When it was the kid, Bill, standing in front of him, Bushido leaned down and got him his water and arched a brow at him. "You okay, kid?"

"Yeah, I just... didn't expect all this."

He was cute, offering him smiles like he wasn't affected at all, but Bushido had seen it all, literally, and he knew that it was probably sitting rather heavily on the boy's shoulders. He watched as the boy drank his water without complaint and without even realising he was about to do it, Bushido reached out and rubbed a smudge of make up from the boy's cheek, wondering if he'd been crying. And shit his skin was soft.

"What about you?"

Shit, he was blushing. Bushido pulled his hand back and took the cup from him, leaning down to dip it back into the water, giving Tom some, seeing how the kid looked at him all wary-like.

"Me?" he asked lowly. "What about me?"

"Well, I wasn't the one to fight one of those... those..."

"Xenomorphs..." Bushido offered him the name of the creatures.

"Bastards."

Bushido had to chuckle at that and offered him an amused grin as he gave Maria and the kids their drinks, not answering him until he was done. He took the little boy from her, seeing that she was tired, and held him awkwardly out in front of him-he'd never been very good with kids. After a moment he turned to Bill and dumped the kid in his arms, arching a brow. He figured the kid could do with something to take his mind off things-looking after the boy would keep him busy.

"I'm fine," he said briskly. "I don't think anyone expected this, kid. Yous doin' good," he told him and squeezed his shoulder before he was turning away to talk and help the next person, the conversation obviously over.

"You're not doing so bad yourself, Boss."

He looked over his shoulder at the kid who was smiling at him and he watched as he took the little boy over to his brother and sat down with him, only then did he finally look away, handing out drinks to the rest of the civilians. They'd only barely had the chance to get everyone a drink and have a drink themselves, though, before Antonio was bitching again, this time about how long everyone was taking.

"So, are we going to stand around and socialize over drinks or are we going to get somewhere safe? I don't want to be the next one ripped in half."

Frowning, Bushido put the cup away in his pack again and headed over to the civilians, grabbing Antonio by the back of the neck and dragging him close, whispering into his ear. "Remember what I did to that fuckin' bug back there. You don't keep your mouth shut, I'm going to rip out your tongue and keep it as a souvenir."

It didn't take long before the annoying man was going pale and pulling away from him, nodding, and Bushido clapped him roughly on the back before he was heading towards the front, throwing Bill a playful wink as he passed. "Alright, further up the river is a cave, it's not the nicest place to sleep, but there's only one way in and one way out, which makes it a LOT safer than it is now," he told them before he was leading them along the river again, not willing to waste anymore time.


	3. Chapter 3

Perhaps half an hour later-Bushido's watch had been ruined when he'd been splashed with acid earlier, so he wasn't sure how long it had been-they found themselves walking through shallow waters towards a big looming cave that the river disappeared into. If he remembered correctly, the river went down underground before coming out further East.

As they had walked, the commander had deeply considered the idea of actually climbing down into the caves below, but he knew that if they were found by the creatures, no one knew the tunnels well enough and they'd be sitting, or running, ducks-ducks being chased by turbojets fueled with rocket fuel. He'd been studying Xenomorphs for about five years now, ever since a team of archaeologists had been assembled by billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland for an expedition near the Antarctic to investigate a mysterious heat signal. From data gathered, he knew Weyland and his group had discovered a pyramid below the surface of a whaling station. They'd gone to the indicated place a few months after hearing Alexa Woods' testimony of what had happened, and there had been hardly anything left, but the scientists had been able to find alien DNA. Then the crash and attack in Gunnison, Colorado had happened and they'd been able to get more and more information about the Xenomorphs.

These were very different from the aliens he'd learnt about from the information they'd got from Alexa Woods. The new ones were faster, smaller and he could tell they'd been born inside of the jungle animals, each one a little different. He had no clue what they could be up against. He decided, then, to sit down and make some notes tonight, and hopefully the civilians would have some memory of what they had seen, every little detail counted with these things.

Suddenly, Bushido slapped at the back of his neck and frowned. There were more mosquitos out now that the sun was getting lower, and they would soon start becoming a real problem, but it was honestly the least of their problems at the moment and he was glad when he was finally able to see the looming cave through the thick jungle vegetation.

"Going to have to walk through the water up here," he told everyone, pausing at the bank and cutting his way through with the machete.

"Is it deep?"

When he looked, he realised it had been the mother that had asked, probably looking out for the children, and he shook his head. "No, it's about calf high and only lessens further into the cave, but it's also a good way to mask your scent," he told them and stepped down into the water, offering his hand to the first person to get in and helping everyone down the bank into the water, Saad and Kay moving to the front to scout out the cave.

As Bill got to the bank, Bushido smirked up at him and took his hand, helping him and the kid he was still carrying down and steadying him on his feet. He was starting to look tired-they all were, actually. Taking the boy from him, Bushido settled the sleeping kid awkwardly on his hip, nodding towards the cave. "Watch your step, them rocks can get slippery," he warned him before he was helping Tom down-the kid glaring at him sullenly.

"Wat you got jammed up your ass, kid?" he asked him gruffly, looking amused as he adjusted the sleeping kid in his arms, feeling a little awkward.

"Same shit as you," Tom sneered, holding tight to those pants of his as he waded through the water, the material getting obviously heavy.

"Well, that's worrying," Bushido chuckled and smacked him on the back as he passed.

He just grinned as he heard the kid grumbling about it to his twin, turning his attention to helping down Maria the best he could with one hand, following after her into the cave. The only sound to his ears at that point was the sound of the water and everyone moving through it. Bushido looked over at the kid he was holding before he continued inside.

As he walked, he barked out a few orders, uncomfortable with the silence, positioning Eko and Vin at the mouth of the cave for the first watch.

As they moved further into the cave and headed towards the dry, gritty land that was tucked around the corner, curving with the river, Bushido couldn't help but feel a chill. The interior of the cave was dark and dank, but it was out of sight and hopefully a lot safer than outside.

Stepping up onto dry ground, Bushido let his eyes do a quick sweep of the area before he was handing the kid over to Maria, winding between civilians until he was stepping to the front. He made them wait as he took another, more thorough look around, his gun held out in front of him. Once he was sure that the area was clear, Bushido finally lowered his gun and flicked the safety back on, sliding it back into the position at his hip.

"Alright, everyone, we'll make camp here for the night. Kay, Chakuza, I want you to bring in a couple of them bigger logs for people to sit on," he ordered before heading over to a couple of his men, Ari and Sido, the two of them already arranging a hunt like they were trained to.

Of course, he wanted in, hunting was his kind of thing; it was Sido's too, something they had in common. Ari was more into fishing, fishing was good too, but hunting was a real sport, especially with those creatures out there. The animals would be running in panic, making them easy targets. He couldn't wait.

When he looked up next, it was the kid, Bill, that his eyes fell on-the boy sitting on a log with his twin-and he stopped listening to what Ari was talking about. "Hold up," he told them and nodded down at the map in front of them, heading over to the twins instead.

"How you holding up?" he asked Bill seriously.

"We're fine."

It was Tom that spoke up first, obviously trying to get rid of him. Bushido wasn't stupid, in fact he was a very smart man and never missed a trick.

"Tom!"

Bushido watched as the younger boy-if he remembered correctly-hit at his brother and he smiled a little, amused. He didn't mind, the kid was just obviously looking after his brother; who knew what kind of intentions he might have had... Honestly, he wasn't too sure what his intentions were, either. The kid was cute, and it had been a while since he'd had anyone...

Okay, so maybe the kid was right to not trust him.

"Don't worry about it," he told Bill and scratched the back of his neck, grinning a little. "Want somethin' to do?" he asked him, nodding over to the area where they'd put down all the bags and supplies, thinking it would help if everyone had something to do, left them no time to dwell on their situation, he supposed.

"I see how it is."

Bushido's eyebrows shot up and he couldn't help but look amused. It was odd, actually, because he found himself more and more amused by him whereas when he'd first seen him, he was sure he was going to be a complete handful-and he was a little, but it didn't seem to matter to him. So far, the kid had pulled his own weight when he'd needed to. "Oh yea?"

"The second I sit down, you're looking to put me to work again. What can I do for you, Boss?"

That made him chuckle and he shrugged a broad shoulder, licking at the corner of his mouth in amusement, rubbing a hand over his short hair. "We're jus' gettin' settled in before it get's dark, you know, like gettin' firewood, hunting, all that. We could use someone to go through all that and find what we have left, what can be used, and what needs to be saved."

"Don't you have plenty of people to do that sort of thing?"

Glancing at Tom when he spoke, Bushido gave him a look. "And now I have another volunteer," he said to the dreaded teen, arching a brow. "Saad, git over here," he called over his shoulder and waited for the other man to join him.

"What's up, Boss?"

"Got you a volunteer for that firewood, how about you take Tom and explain the safety rules and give the kid a knife," he told him and looked at the eldest teen expectantly.

When Tom huffed away, both Bushido and Bill watched him before they were sharing a look, Bushido shifting and shrugging. "Like I was sayin', could use your help while I'm out," he said to him, shifting the gun on his back and putting his hunting knife away for now, figuring he didn't need them just yet, anyway. "Think you can handle it?"

"I'm sure I can manage. Be careful out there, I'm not sure a man of your age could handle taking on another of those creatures bare-handed."

Imp.

Bushido's smirk widened and then faltered a little as the kid stood and reached up, actually grabbing his muscular bicep and even going as far as giving it a squeeze that went right to his dick. As Bill passed him, Bushido turned and watched him leave, his eyes dropping down to the kids ass, moving away just as quick before he was grinning and shaking his head in amusement. Well, that was interesting, the kid seemed to be just as interested as he was; he couldn't be sure, though, and besides, he was a bit young in comparison to himself.

Not to mention, their lifestyles clashed like two bulls hacking it out over some prime piece of beef they both wanted for themselves.

Heading back over to Ari and Sido, Bushido crouched down to go through his pack, digging through until he pulled out a net, rolling it into a small ball and tucking it into his belt. They probably wouldn't need to use it, but there was a chance that most of the animals would of left already and they would only be able to get fish or something. A net would make the job faster, much quicker than a couple of lines.

"Ready, Boss?"

It was Ari, the man finishing the sharpening of his knife, all three of them with guns and knifes. They wouldn't use the guns unless it really came down to it. The sound would just attract the creatures and, really, it was the last thing they needed right now.

"Fuck yea, lets get this done," Bushido said with a nod, standing up and joining Sido as they headed back down into the water, Bushido looking up as Saad, Shad,Tom and Fler passed them, the teen not looking too happy about having to go out there with the creatures in the jungle, but Bushido knew that his men would protect him with their lives. He just hoped it wouldn't come down to that-the kid would never forgive him if he got his brother killed.

They headed out into the jungle in the opposite direction to where Saad's team were going for firewood, knowing that the job would be louder than usual with the kid, which would scare the animals away so they went off towards the area they knew the creatures were.

Still well away from their current territory, Bushido, Sido and Ari spread out, fanning out and coming back together before they spread out again, keeping each other in sight as they pulled out their knives. There was a loud crackling coming from the brush ahead of them-the snapping of twigs and vegetation mingling with the sounds of their own heartbeats in their ears. They had to be careful, because there was a chance it could be an Xenomorph, or even an animal that was infected or impregnated by the creatures.

Crouching low, the men exchanged glances before all three sets of eyes landed on the trees ahead of them. Bushido was sure he even held his breath as they silently watched the vegetation, all three of them as still as the trees they hid behind, watching and waiting. Bushido was sure he could hear the other two let out relieved breaths as a wild, slightly on the skinny side, boar burst through the brush and crashed towards them.

The danger wasn't over, because that boar was running from something.

Bushido motioned to Sido who pulled his gun out, aiming, watching their backs as him and Ari shifted, ready to jump the boar. It got closer and closer-and that's where things got a little out of hand, another creature bursting from the jungle, much bigger and just as fast. He'd never seen anything like it. It was one of the creatures, he knew that much, but it was... almost like a giant ant in shape, a green so dark it was almost black, and even as they watched, it opened its huge jaws and acid flew from its mouth, splattering against a tree, eating right through it, the huge tree creaking before toppling right towards them, the three of them scattering to avoid being crushed.

Grunting as he hit the ground, Bushido cursed as his knife flew from his hand, he looked over the ground, frowning as he couldn't see it at all, and he went to pull the gun from his hip only to find the holster empty.

Fuck.

The wild pig squealed suddenly as Bushido watched Ari threw himself on it, knocking it to the ground, the huge creature rushing towards them with a scream of its own.

Scrambling to his feet, Bushido looked around and the glint of his gun caught his attention. Ducking down behind a tree, Bushido took a breath and then dove out into the open, heading right for his gun-and right at the advancing alien. Catching it up in his hand, Bushido fumbled, for the first time in fucking years, he fumbled.

"Motherfucker!" Bushido swore and swiped it back up, flicking the safety off, lifting the gun just as the creature leaped through the air at Ari and the boar.

Before he could even fire, a shot fired out and Bushido looked over to find that Sido had stuffed himself into a tree and was firing down on it. Joining in, Bushido watched as their shots threw the creature backwards and down, its screams of pain filling the air, sending a chill down all three of their spines. At the same time a scream came from the pig, Ari landing a killing blow with his knife, grabbing the pig by its ears and slitting its throat.

Advancing on the dying Xenomorph, Bushido and Sido keep firing until the creature burned down into the Earth below it, a big steaming pile of nothing, very literally. Grabbing a stick, Bushido poked it down into the mess, pulling the stick away, the end of it eaten away.

"Here, Boss."

Bushido turned and caught his knife, Sido having obviously spotted it from his perch in the tree, having an angle and a view that he hadn't. "Thanks," he grunted and crouched down, grabbing the thing by the head and slamming his knife, severing the head right off the beetle-like shoulders. He ripped it free and made a face as fluid poured from its mouth, covering his hand and he flicked it off, wiping it on some grass before jabbing the head onto a stick.

The guys seemed to find it amusing too, and they all chuckled before he jabbed the stick into the ground and wiped his hands off on his pants, heading over to Ari to help him ready the meat.

"You don't seem too surprised by these things, Boss."

Looking up at Ari as they worked on skinning and gutting the pig, Bushido shrugged. "It's a pretty long story and one that I can't talk about."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't," Bushido grunted and worked at cutting off the head, not wanting to take it back with them, the damned Xenomorph head was bad enough. He didn't want to scare those kids or any of the women. "Need to know basis, kiddo," he told him gruffly and they met eyes and smirked a little. Bushido was only a year or so older than him.

"Bummer. We gonna get through this?"

At that, Bushido paused and looked up at him, serious and grim. "I'm not gunna lie, the odds aren't great, but we're good at this game," he reminded him.

"They're gonna fuck us up good, aren't they?"

"Fuck yes," Bushido grunted and wiped his knife on his pants. "Probably going to make you their little bitch, what are you gonna do about it?"

"I ain't goin' down without a fight."

"Amen to that," Bushido snorted and they lifted the pig up, using the net to tie it to a nice thick branch, hoisting it up onto their shoulders with a grunt. Sido picked up their weapons and the stick with the alien head jammed into it, following after them, weapon held in one hand as they headed back towards the cave, their pace quicker now that the sun was dropping low in the sky.


	4. Chapter 4

The walk back to the cave was quiet, thankfully, but Bushido could feel himself sweating from the weight of the boar. It had been a hard, full on week so far and today had been one of the toughest days; his muscles were starting to complain by this point. Of course, he didn't utter any kind of complaint, just shrugged the weight of the boar more evenly over his shoulders and carried on walking towards camp.

Sido had been quite amusing the entire walk back, even going as far as disappearing ahead to jab the Xenomorph head out at an unexpecting Ari as he passed, causing him to shoot off a round of bullets at absolutely nothing, only to get hassled by Sido when he appeared moments later, shaking the slobbering Xenomorph head in the man's face, making caveman sounds.

"Quit it, you bug lover."

Bushido listened to them throwing insults back and forth between them, the both of them going quiet as they approached the river and the cave. Both Eko and Vin were pretty impressed with their 'souvenir' and Bushido could still hear them talking about it as he and his men carried it into the cave, along with the skinned and gutted boar, the sound of the chattering civilians soon reaching their ears as they rounded the corner and walked up onto dry land.

"Boss!"

It was Kay, and from the look of things they'd been quite busy while his small team had been out hunting for food. The fire was going now, the flames reaching quite high-too high to cook on, in fact-it would only burn the bottom of the wild pig and cook it too fast. Any wild animal needed to be cooked slow and low.

"That's too high," he told Kay and him and his men carefully put the meat down on a sleeping tarp that had been set up, the older man rubbing at his arms before nodding at Saad. "You need to grab Fler and dig a pit, all those embers and hot stones around that fire will be needed..."

"Done, over here, Boss."

Saad nodded over to where Fler was sitting on a log in front of a pit and Bushido gave a relieved sigh, walking over to the other man and looking down at the pit they'd made the coals in it red and white-showing that they were ready.

"Who made the spit?" he asked Fler, flashing him a pleased grin.

"Chakuza and Kay."

"Nice work," Bushido grunted at Chakuza and Kay who had come over to join them.

Looking around, Bushido could see that Saad, Shad, Fler and Tom had collected quite a large pile of wood, the pile now leaning up against a dry wall of the cave. The civilians were scattered around the cave in their little groups and it wasn't long before Bushido's dark eyes fell on Bill and Tom and he grinned at them a little, throwing Bill a salute-that was playfully returned-before he was turning back to his men and ducking down by the boar. Grabbing up some thin rope to truss the meat with, Bushido tied it to a thick, whittled down branch and firmly secured it.

"I went through all the supplies like you asked..."

Glancing up, the older man's eyes fell on Bill's face and he flashed him a smile. Obviously, the kid had been encouraged by their interaction and had come over. "Oh yea? And what's the verdict, kid?" he asked him, standing up and wiping his blood covered hands on his pants.

"We have some fruit, nuts and a few things of dry cereal..."

"Those are best saved for the children," Bushido interrupted after a moment, frowning as the kid suddenly looked a little crestfallen. "What's up?"

He had to actually duck his head down towards Bill a little to hear what he'd said as he answered his question, eyebrows rising as he missed it. "Again, kid, louder."

"I don't eat meat!"

When the boy practically shouted it at him, Bushido chuckled a little and then shot his men a look when they too decided it was funny and laughed at the kid. He pressed his lips together thoughtfully before he was scratching at the back of his neck. "Well, I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice, kid."

"I know, but it doesn't mean I have to like it!"

Was that sass coming through? What a fucking brat, seriously.

"Kid, you need your strength. I don't care what you normally eat or don't fuckin' eat, today we only walked half a day and tomorrow we need to walk for the whole day," he told him seriously, needing him to really understand his current situation. He didn't want anymore people to die by these fuckers and the last thing he wanted to have on his shoulders was this kids death. "Today you were strong, but tomorrow you will need to be stronger."

The kid had the decency to look ashamed with himself and when he glanced up and spoke the question was one that Bushido hadn't expected at all.

"How do you do this? You seem like you've been out here doing this for a while. How do you handle it so well? You don't even seem scared!"

"I don't," Bushido responded after a moment. "I take it out on the motherfuckers."

Shrugging, he looked at the kid seriously for a bit. He felt like he should give the kid something he could use to survive this mentally and physically. "Look, kid," he started to say as he lifted up the trussed up boar, grabbing onto the ends of the branch it was tied around and carrying it over to the fire pit his men had created, muscles bulging as he did so. "You use it, that fear you got down deep inside, that fear you keep trying to hide behind all that hair, stop fuckin' hiding it and start using it. That fear will keep you alive. There's a reason we got it, you know?"

Bushido was surprised when the kid actually laughed at his advice and his forehead scrunched into a frown as he looked at him over his shoulder, arching a brow. "What you laughin' about?"

"I don't hide behind my hair!"

"Oh yea? Are you sure about that? It's fuckin' everywhere. I was walkin' and pullin' pieces off the arm of the uniform. At this rate, even I could hide behind it..." He said, nodding pointedly at the kid's currently messy hair. He looked quite surprised when the kid actually punched him in the arm, making him chuckle lightly.

"How do you know it's mine?!"

Bushido didn't answer at first, too busy setting up the wild pig on the spit. Once the boar was sitting over the hot coals, he stood up again and turned to look at the teenager. He grinned at him and shrugged. "Well with the state it's currently in, it just wouldn't surprise me is all."

"That's not a very good reason..."

The kid was laughing, so he knew that he wasn't really offended.

"So, you really don't eat meat? Sorry about that, but you're going to need to eat it, kid," he told him again, gruffly, but not in a threatening kind of way. "It's full of protein and we've got to get you all out of here as fast as we can. Do your best not to think about it," he said and gave him a bit of an amused smile.

"I know, I'd just... rather not watch. Tom is the same, or meant to be, but I know he eats burgers occasionally, when he thinks I don't know about it."

Listening to Bill, and nodding in understanding, Bushido led the way down to the river's edge, crouching down to wash his hands in the water, not much liking the smell of death on his hands. He didn't even hear the kid stepping up behind him until he spoke again.

"I saw the head you brought back on a stick, disgusting."

"We can't all be pretty like you, kid," Bushido chuckled and stood up, standing beside Bill as he looked around, trying to decide what to do next, glancing over at the stick jabbed into the ground close to the fire, the light reflecting off the shiny, dark green armor of the Xenomorphs head.

"The aliens are taking animal hosts, I haven't seen anything like it-they're not like the ones I saw in the-" He stopped when he realised he was telling Bill things he didn't dare tell Saad or Kay or even Ari-things he wasn't even supposed to be telling anyone, under no circumstances. But he could die here, the odds weren't in his favor, and he felt like he had to tell someone. Especially the people he'd got caught up in this whole ordeal.

"So they evolve then? Like Pokemon? Sort of a way to carry on surviving?"

"A... Pokemon?" Bushido said slowly, a bit unsure what that was. "What's that?"

"You don't know what Pokemon are?"

Bill sounded a little surprised, and it was amusing, but the bigger man just shrugged a broad shoulder. Was he supposed to know? He tried to think if he'd even heard the name of whatever this thing was or was supposed to be-let alone how they would or could be compared to an Xenomorph or any kind of extraterrestrial. "Nope, not a clue."

"It's a television show and book series, for kids I suppose. They're these fictional creatures that adjust and evolve to become more powerful and you can catch them in Pokeballs and collect them or fight them against other Pokemon..."

Bushido wasn't so sure he could even relate to what the kid was talking about, the program sounded a little-off and perhaps, well, childish. "Sounds... interesting..."

It really didn't.

"You're such a bad liar."

At the boy calling him out, Bushido chuckled and scratched at his neck. "A'ight, yea, they evolve, mutate," he said after a moment, seeming to consider his words carefully. "They spawn in humans or other animals and creatures, A Queen lays her eggs and in the eggs are what we call 'facehuggers', they have a tail that wraps around your throat..." he paused and looked at the kid seriously, unsure if he was ready for this. "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Yeah, keep your friends close and your enemies closer right?"

"I'd definitely like to know."

Bushido glanced up to see Tom standing behind them, looking a little perturbed, and the frown on his face was very quickly mimicked by Bill as he looked up as well.

"As would I."

It was Maria that echoed Tom's request to know more and Bushido sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and nodding.

"A'ight," he mumbled, glancing around at everyone and then motioning over to the fire with all the logs gathered around it, watching as people walked over and started to sit around it, eager to know what they were up against now that the children had been put down to sleep, three young heads poking out from under a blanket of jackets and warm shirts.

He waited until everyone had settled around, the older man leaning up against the cave wall as he considered how he was supposed to tell them-what he should and shouldn't tell them. The problem was; they deserved to know everything, just like his men did. They could all die out here and they should know everything they needed to know about their enemy.

"Look, I'll tell you all I know, what's been recorded so far, because even then, we don't know a whole lot about these things-" Bushido frowned as Antonio stood up, throwing his arms up and looking panicked and angry, looking for someone to blame, it seemed, at least, to him.

"Oh, well that's great, we're in the middle of a fucking b-bug hunt and the 'Top Gun' doesn't even know rat shit about these things!"

"Shut up, man!"

Bushido nodded at Dave, who had spoken, and the big man stood and pulled Antonio roughly back down into a sitting position on the log. Rubbing his hand over the back his shaved head and neck, Bushido sighed and turned to look at everyone.

"What I know, it ain't good. These things are born predators," he explained to them seriously, starting to pace back and forth in front of the logs that had been set up. "The first record we have of the creatures is from back in two thousand and four. What little information we could find tells us that a group of Archaeologists assembled by billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland discovered a heat source beneath the ice on an Island called Bouvetøya, about one thousand miles north of Antarctica.

From what we could tell it was a pyramid..."

"A pyramid? Don't you just find them in Egypt?"

It was Bill, and it wasn't a completely stupid question. The others looked just as baffled as the teen and Bushido actually cracked a bit of a smile. "Actually, no, infact I think there is one not far from our position now."

"Really, oh, I think I saw something about that in one of the tour pamphlets..."

Bushido carried on speaking, not stopping to acknowledge the kids faux par, knowing people wanted to know about these creatures. "At that exact same time a ship was noticed, hovering just outside Earth's atmosphere, it seemed to be cloaked, so they couldn't get an exact lock and we're not even sure the Xenomorphs came from that ship..."

"Ship, as in spaceship, like Star Wars?"

The scoffed question came from Tom, the teen laughing and giving the other man a leer. He was actually, kind of, starting to grow on Bushido, the kid had a hard shell and he liked to share it with his brother, protective and watchful of him and Bushido respected that.

"E.T. phooone hooome."

A few people laughed, that somehow clearing the air, which had been tense with fear. Even Bushido chuckled and moved on, meeting Tom's challenging gaze. "Yes actually, well I'm not sure if it's the size of a Imperial landing craft or the size of of E.T's bicycle..."

"Wait, you know about Star Wars and E.T, but you don't know anything about Pokemon?!"

The exclamation from Bill drew a few more chuckles from the gathered group and an especially loud one from Bushido, the older man's eyes crinkling at the corners. "Anyways, like I was sayin', it was reported by one of the Archaeologists-the only one that made it out alive- that it was the pyramid coming to life, long story short; these things took the whole team out, one by one, ruthlessly and without hesitation. Guns didn't scare them and they had absolutely no mercy."

"How'd she survive, then?"

He was surprised to find that it was Susie that had spoken up, she'd been rather quiet these past few hours and he smiled reassuringly at her. "Well, apparently another alien helped her."

"So, basically she was completely nuked in the head?"

It was about time one of his men spoke up, and Bushido glanced over to find Kay looking at him with a cheeky grin. Everyone laughed a little and he found himself shrugging. "Really can't tell you if she was or not, she was killed six months after in a freak mountain climbing accident."

"Damn."

This time it was Sido that spoke up, using a big switchblade to whittle at a piece of wood, boredly, listening carefully. Bushido had always noticed that Sido liked to have something to do with his hands, whether it was holding a gun or whittling with a knife that could slice his finger off so easily it would be like a knife slicing through butter.

The commander nodded at him and looked around the top of the cave, eyes seeming to search the damp, dark ceiling. His eyes soon returned to the faces focused so intently on him. "The second time anyone encountered them was was exactly fifty minutes later when there was a report of a spaceship crashing, except when it was investigated later there was no sign of any spaceship. It didn't help that the Government decided to nuke the area and destroy the threat and the last survivors of the entire town that the creatures managed to ravage-hospitals, sewers, you name it, it was the only way to be sure.

However, it still only gives us so much to go on. Acid for blood, faster than most animals on Earth, they're big and they're not at all stupid either. These ones seem to be different, though, almost having qualities of the animals that hosted them..."

"Yea, Boss, like the one that attacked you. That fucker was huge," it was Kay that interrupted him with the comment and Bushido nodded.

"With the way it acted, I would say some kind of predator, it was bigger and stronger than the others," Bushido told them, his eyes flicking over all of their faces. "A bear, or a wild cat, perhaps even a wolf. It's really hard to say, because even with their differences they're still so completely alien that you can't see the animal or human in it, other than the way they move or attack."

The older man rubbed at the back of his neck, everyone silent while he paced back and forth a bit, turning his eyes back to them. "They may seem intelligent, but they're not vastly, more just predators more than anything. They have no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of life that could pose a threat... They are what we call eusocial, with a single fertile Queen alien breeding a caste of warriors."

"Like wasps?" It was Bill, surprisingly enough, that questioned him.

"Exactly, like wasps or termites or Bees," Bushido replied with a nod.

"Animal planet," it was Tom who spoke, snorting in a scoffing sort of way.

Bushido didn't have any qualms about ignoring the teen and he turned his head thoughtfully before speaking again, carrying on with giving both his crew and the civilians the information they could possibly use to keep themselves alive throughout this. "There are a few different kinds of the creatures," he told them after a moment, turning to look at everyone.

"There's the Queen-we don't know too much about her, other than what we were told by Alexa Woods, the guide that Charles hired; they are significantly larger. You saw the alien that attacked me, think almost three times that size, the warriors are considered to be a lot smaller, but faster; we were told that the Queen was approximately 20 feet tall at the hip and 53 feet in length, that's only what she observed," he told them seriously.

"Next up is the Egg, now they might sound harmless, but they're really not. Of course, laid by the Queen, the eggs are reported to look leathery between two to three feet high with a four-lobed opening at the top. You see one of these, you stay away, you run before it even moves, they are almost see-through, and if you get close, it senses prey and opens up to reveal what we call 'Facehuggers'. They have eight finger-like legs, a tail that makes it easy for them to jump face to attach themselves to prey-"

"By the sounds of things, we don't have a chance."

It was Maria that spoke and Bushido paused in what he had to say to look at her thoughtfully. "I ain't gunna lie, there's a big chance a lot of you won't survive this jungle and if we don't get our job done, there's a chance that none of us will."

"Then why did you even help us?"

There was obvious disdain behind Tom's voice and his fists were fisted into his jeans, showing that he was obviously afraid, even Bill looked a little pale in the light of the fire. Bushido rubbed a hand over his forehead and sighed.

"Look, I wasn't about to stand by and do nothin'!" Bushido told him in a gruff, slightly strained tone, his shoulders stiff. "We have a job to do, protect Earth, dispose of the enemy, you're a fuckin' big part of Earth, people are. Wouldn't you rather have a fuckin' chance at life than to die without even knowing what hit you? Are you about to sit back and let these motherfuckers tear apart everything you know? Or are you going to use the balls you were born with and fight for everything that's important?!"


	5. Chapter 5

The silence that came from the older teen, Tom, was unexpected and Bushido arched his brow and watched, almost in pride, as the boy's chin came up stubbornly, his arms crossing over his chest as he puffed it out, finally speaking up.

"I'll fight if it's the last thing I do!"

"That'a boy," Bushido said to Tom with a smirk before he was looking everyone over. "I saved you because that's what I ido/i, you can't fight for yourself when you don't know what you're even fighting against. So now that I gave yous a second chance, what are iyou/i gunna do with it?"

Bushido watched as Bill's hand slowly came up like he was in school or some shit. He nodded at him and the teen sat up straighter.

"Fight?"

"Well... survive would have been an acceptable answer too, but yes, you fight for your right to iour/i planet, iour/i lives," Bushido told him gruffly, used to giving talks like this to his men when the times were tough and their odds weren't that great.

"What about the children?" Maria asked, sounding concerned as she glanced over at them.

"We fight for them, that's what we're here for, isn't it?" Saad asked, shifting his gun beside his leg and looking from Maria to the other women, Susie.

"He's right."

Susie didn't seem to speak much, Bushido noted as she spoke up, his eyes meeting hers before he nodded. "I think they best thing right now is to get to the closest village..." he told them, looking a little thoughtful, because he hadn't planned on finding civilians out here to have to protect, in fact he wasn't even sure how he was going to do this without losing control of the situation completely.

These aliens procreated fast, like ants.

"So, how do we fight them? I mean, you and your boys did a pretty damn good job of it today, but you'll all get tired eventually,"

It was Bill, and it was another good question, one that sent Bushido into a thoughtful silence. He rubbed a hand against his forehead and sighed, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't be void of hope. He didn't have a chance to reply before Susie was opening her mouth to speak, glancing over the at sleeping children again, her hands trembling.

"Are we going to make it out alive?"

Again, Bushido was silent, crossing his arms over his chest and looking rather sullen and conflicted as he stood there looking seriously at the civilians, seeing expectation there on their faces, expectation and fear-fear that he felt, but that was so deep set by now that it didn't even show. Honestly, he'd never been in this situation before, only having to give his men bad news, knowing that they could take it-these were innocent, untrained civilians.

"Well, see I told you, these fuckers don't even know what to do, we're fucked, man, fucked! We're totally fucked, we're going to die out here-the kids, us, we're all going to fucking DIE!"

Looking over when Antonio started to panic, yelling, even causing the children to stir in their makeshift beds. Bushido could see that everyone was starting to look more and more afraid the longer that Antonio opened his big fuckin' mouth.

"Bro, chill."

Bushido smirked when Leroy spoke up, punching Antonio in the arm in what looked like a friendly manner. However, Antonio didn't take it that way and roughly shoved the other man, causing Leroy's brother, Markus, to stand up and take control of the situation, grabbing Antonio roughly.

"QUIET!" Bushido growled and walked quickly over to Antonio, towering over him in an intimidating way, brow drawn into a frown. He lifted his hand and before anyone could see what was coming his hand connected with the back of the man's head, something he often did to his men, usually jokingly, but this time he was pretty damned, fucking serious. "What did I tell you I'd do? You want your tongue hangin' with the bug's head?!"

"N-no..."

"Than keep the fucking thing on the low down before I accidentally slip," he told him and pat the knife at his hip, watching as Big Dave grabbed Antonio by the arm and yanked him back down into a sitting position, putting his hand on the back of the man's neck, giving it a squeeze-likely a silent warning of his own before he found the bigger man looking back at him, speaking up.

"As loud as he is, he ain't wrong."

He felt the man's eyes on his face, felt everyone looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to say that Antonio was wrong-no one wanted that dick to be right, but still, Bushido didn't say anything, just pinched the bridge of his nose and listened to Dave carry on.

"I mean, hell, we got a better chance with your crew around, but do we even know how many of these things there are?"

"There's no way we can fight them all, especially if they're breeding with every fucking thing they come across out there."

This time it was Tom that spoke up, the dreaded teen looking almost angry now. He idid/i understand, but this wasn't exactly the time and the place to be doubting the one person that could help you, and Bushido's aggravation was starting to show on his tanned, slightly smudged face, red seeping up his throat towards his face. He watched as Bill frowned and roughly elbowed his twin, speaking up.

"Look, if anyone has a chance of getting us out of this alive, it's Bushido."

Smiling stiffly at Bill, Bushido looked down and rubbed at the back of his neck, willing himself to calm down before he lost his cool. "Now, look. I would ilove/i to lie just to make you all feel better about all this shit, but we were never planning on coming out of this alive," he told them honestly. "But we never expected to come upon a bus of defenseless civilians either. We were supposed to go in there and blow away as many of those motherfuckers as we could before using this," he said and after a moment he pulled his pack over, flipping the flap back and loosening the drawstring to reveal a explosive device.

"Holy shit. Can't it just... explode? Isn't that dangerous?"

Chuckling at Tom, Bushido shook his head and pulled it out, a few of the civilians leaning closer to look. "Naw, I have to put the code in," Bushido said to them, tucking it away. "But now we have to get you out first and hopefully we'll make it back in time to rid Earth of every last fucking one."

What he didn't expect was an incredulous cry from Bill, the supportive tone in his voice replaced with a harsh tone that made Bushido's eyebrows shoot up. He couldn't remember hearing that tone since he'd first helped the boy out of the bus, the kid having made comments about being careful because he was a model.

"So even if everyone here makes it out of this in one piece, you're all just going to turn right back around and-and kill yourselves?"

"If it comes down it, yes," Bushido told him seriously, ready to die for his country, for the people of Earth. "It's my job, kid," he told him with a bit of a frown, surprised by his tone and the sort of protective tone that seemed to underlie his voice.

"Not 'if it comes down to it'. You said yourself that you came out here expecting to die. Not even men going off to war say something like that."

Even Tom looked surprised, Bushido noted. It was obvious by the way Bill's arm were folded over his chest and the way he looked away, no longer meeting his gaze, that the boy just wanted to storm off and he probably would have if they'd been anywhere else, somewhere safer. Sighing, Bushido looked around and shrugged a shoulder, not looking at all ashamed about that fact he would easily go down fighting at anytime if that's what it took.

"I'd rather go in prepared to die, so then if I came out alive it would be a good surprise, I'd rather use all I have left to go in there and fight to my last dying breath than run from what's only going to come get me anyway," he told him seriously. "Kid, look at me," he told him, not caring that everyone was looking at them. But Bill didn't even look at him, his arms just tightening in a rather stubborn sort of way, the teen still not looking at him.

So Bushido just stood there looking at him in silence, everyone soon doing the same. It obviously made the teen uncomfortable because all of a sudden he was frowning and waving a dismissive hand at him and speaking up.

"Later."

"No, now," Bushido said and took a step forwards, clamping a hand down on Bill's arm and pulling him close, talking lowly to him. "You think I wanna die, kid? You think I signed up for this when I started? No, I didn't expect them to come back again, and that I would be the one to go in and clean up the mess. But someone's gotta do it, who else gunna look after kids like you," he asked quietly, needing him to understand. He could see the fear and frustration on the kid's face and it wasn't long before the boy turned his head and their eyes met. He had his jaw set, and it was obvious that he was holding back some sort of retort, it wasn't long before the boy was spitting it out huffily.

"If you go in thinking you're going to die, you won't have a chance."

"We always have a chance, in everything we do, doesn't matter if you believe it or not, just cos I don't believe I'll come out of there alive, doesn't mean mean I won't find my last wind and get out of there alive. I'm a soldier, I look at the odds, and right now, ours are pretty damned bleak." He was silent for a moment before grabbing at the kid's chin with his rough, calloused fingers, tilting his head up to look him properly in the eyes. "Would it make you feel better if I promised to do my best to get my ass out of there-"

He was interrupted by Fler, his words bringing an automatic frown to his face, the commander letting go of the boy's chin and turning towards him. "What did you say?"

"I said, we'd have a better chance if we just ditched the civilians. They're still producing, we wouldn't be so overwhelmed."

It was eerily quiet for a moment, Bushido staring Fler down, but not saying a word. It was true, they would be better off, they'd get to the nest in time to exterminate it, without killing themselves even-there iwas/i a better chance for them. It was either a slim chance for everyone or a good, proper chance for the soldiers.

"There are children."

Bushido was pleased to hear Susie speaking up again, because he didn't want to even ithink/i about just leaving them defenseless. He was about to make some sort of acknowledgement when Bill spoke up once again, this time he was smiling a little, even iif/i it did look a little on the strained side.

"It would make me feel better."

"What?" Bushido asked him, a little confused, because of the out of the blue comment.

"It would make me feel better if you promised. It's either that or you might as well just leave me here to die. I'm growing sort of fond of you."

Finding his mouth twitching up into a slight smirk, Bushido arched a brow and turned to look at Antonio as he once again spoke up, the older man giving him a warning look as he directed his question and big mouth at Bill.

"Shouldn't we be worrying about other things right now, Bill? This isn't Survivor, okay? This is the fucking real deal."

"As much as ithat/i guy is a fucking Bag of Dicks, he's right, there's a time and a place," Bushido told Bill and was surprised when everyone-except for Antonio, himself-started to laugh at the unexpected phrase. He grinned only slightly, giving the kids arm a squeeze before he was moving away again. "Well, you could all risk coming with us," he said after a moment, shrugging a broad shoulder. He didn't really like that idea, at all.

Neither did Antonio, apparently.

"We might as well stay here, like the kid said, you could leave your men here... go by yourself."

"Fuck you, Antonio. If one of those bug fuckers out there doesn't catch you, I'll throw you to them myself. I'm sure they'd like a big meal of Dick."

It surprised Bushido to hear that kind of thing, but it surprised him more to hear it come from Bill's mouth and not Tom or Sido like he'd expected. And he started to chuckle, only to hear one of the men, Jesse, make an equally amusing comment.

"We could send you by yourself, but Lord knows you'd fuck it up."

"Fightin' isn't going to get us anywhere," Bushido said and it was easy to tell that he was actually considering what Antonio had suggested-out of spite or not, it was a plan and he knew his men would protect the people, the cave would protect them from the blast... probably, most likely, but there was always a risk. "Fuck," Bushido muttered and rubbed a hand over his face, waving everyone away before he was heading to stand at the entrance of the cave. He needed to think, ihe/i was running this, so it was up to him what they would or wouldn't do.


End file.
